


Tidbits

by Geonn



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-10
Updated: 2011-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-24 11:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James wasn't entirely straight with her. (Spoilers for 4x01 Tempus)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tidbits

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grav_ity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grav_ity/gifts).



He sent her away to change clothes, ashamed at misleading her. Once she let down the ruse and admitted she really was from the future - he still got a head rush from the thought - he knew that there was only one course of action available to him. Once she was gone, he ran his thumbnail along the side of the strange illuminated device until he found a release. It was fairly self-explanatory, getting the object open. It cracked into two halves and he gazed upon a bizarre panel black panel with tiny writing on it. He peered closer. "Made in China..."

There was no way he would be able to replicate this. He eyed the rest of the material she had brought with her and an idea formed. He worked quickly, barely noticing when the door opened behind him. "Hello, James. I see Father has sent us another shipment."

He tensed and glanced over his shoulder at her. Blonde, innocent... the Helen he was accustomed to seeing. She craned her neck in an attempt to see what he was working on. He shifted his weight to block it. Helen clucked her tongue at him.

"Now, James. Just because you saw it first doesn't mean you have proprietary rights. Don't be selfish."

He smiled. "I apologize, my dear. It's simply that I wish to be able to explain it in full once I show it to you."

"Very well. Have your secrets." She smiled. "I can't stay regardless. I merely came to change clothes."

"Is something wrong?"

"This skirt is proving to be a bit tight around the waist, I'm afraid. I'll have to speak to chef about reducing some of my portions at dinner."

James raised an eyebrow. "If you are implying you're overweight... Helen..."

She smiled. "A corset can only hide so much, my dear James." She waved him off and walked past him. "Keep your secrets. I expect a full inventory when I return tonight."

He was so intent on returning to his subterfuge that he hardly realized the danger he had created for the other Helen Magnus. Time was of the essence. He turned the device on again and clicked buttons randomly. "Angry birds? Perhaps a reemergence of the thunderbirds. I'll have to be wary of that. Phone... book...?" He clicked on that and scrolled down the list of names.

Kate, Henry, Pili, Lillian Lee, Sergio, Dahlia, Will... each name was assigned a series of seven numbers and he furrowed his brow. The odd cards Helen carried with her also had an impenetrable series of numbers. Perhaps citizens in the future were assigned numerical values to separate them from one another. He saw something marked album and nearly dropped the phone when he saw what it held.

"Im... impossible." Photographs, as crisp and clear as if he were looking through a window. A man, a dark-skinned woman, a section of ground. The final of these was obviously taken to preserve a boot print in the mud. Watson automatically deduced the suspect's height, weight and a possible defect in his right hip before he realized he'd wasted too much time on the remarkable object's contents. He needed to work quickly lest he get caught.

He would have to sacrifice the shell of the device; that couldn't be helped. It was a tragedy; the material from which it was crafted truly amazed him. He discovered a way to get the innards out of the device, then methodically removed it from the shell.

If Helen held the device, she would no doubt notice the weight difference. He used the packing materials from Gregory's crate to pack the shell until it felt right, then he snapped the cover back into place. He examined the screen, holding it to the light to see smudges of Helen's fingerprints on the... not glass. It was certainly not glass.

"Remarkable. Truly and utterly..." He slipped the curious item into his pocket as Helen came back downstairs in a new gown. He had no idea which one she was until she stepped into the light and he saw her hair color. A hundred years, and she'd hardly aged a day. What a truly amazing gift she had been given... but a burden as well.

There were two different components that caught his eye; one at the top and the other at the bottom. He examined them and deduced one was a microphone and the other was some sort of... a receiver? His eyes widened as realization struck. A communication device! Nikola would kill to get his hands on this. A telephone that was decades ahead of whatever Edison and Bell could cook up. A communication device small enough to fit unobtrusively in one's pocket, in a mere century? How far and how fast innovation must have flown in the twentieth century!

"Finished playing with your toys?"

"Not quite. Back to the shadows for you, Dr. Magnus?"

"Another night hunting killers." She winked at him and leaned in to kiss his cheek. If she noticed that he moved the lid of the crate to cover the other Helen's accoutrements, she didn't say anything. He waited until she was gone before he gathered everything into a bag. The components of the most curious device went into his pocket, and the rest he carried to the incinerator.

He dumped Helen's weapons first, regretfully watching them melt as he imagined all the things he could have done with them. He saved the most intriguing item for last, examining it once more before he condemned it to the flames.

"Don't even think about it."

He looked up to see Helen, the future Helen, standing at the entrance to the room. Her hair was styled in a more modern way, and she wore... well, that was interesting. She had chosen the leather dress that Helen, his Helen, had always balked at wearing. She always said it looked like "something Nikola would have me wear." And now here she was wearing it of her own free will. Much had stayed the same in the past hundred years, but it seemed much had changed as well.

He held up the object of his affection. "It's a communications device, isn't it?"

Helen evaded his question by gesturing at her outfit. "Better?"

"Much." He gave her a quick glance and couldn't help comparing the spread of her hips to that of her past counterpart. She'd given birth. Not recently, but not extraordinarily long ago either. Very, very interesting.

Helen walked to him and took the device, tossing it into the flames. "No questions."

James glanced into the fire and saw the shell blistering. He felt a twinge of loss, but pushed through it to focus on their next step.

#

A few nights later, he and Helen - once again the only Helen at the Sanctuary - had settled Spring-heeled Jack into his new home and things had grown calm once more. He adjourned to his room early and locked the door, spreading the remnants of the device onto his work table. He laid them out in a row, replicating the interior of the device like a cutaway diagram.

The piece on the far left was on top, and the one on the far right was on the bottom. And in between, when combined... it could communicate with other, similar devices. The truly remarkable thing was how few pieces there really were. He determined that the thicker, bulkier object was some sort of energy pack, a battery of sorts to power the device. How much power could it really hold? It was miniscule! Ridiculously so.

And once it was powered, how could it work? What was the range? Where were the wires? How could it possibly transmit a voice across any distance at all without a single wire? And how could it take photographs and store them in such a way?

He picked up one of the wafer-thin guts and held it up to the light. He returned it to the row and scanned each one of the pieces in turn. Finally, he smiled and rested his elbow on the desk, hooking his index finger over his top lip as he stared at the alien technology. He hadn't lied to Helen; these small pieces of her portable telephone would be enough to keep his mind busy for decades.


End file.
